Jose Mourinho Tells Players to Cut Holidays Short 'to Help the Team' as Woeful Pre-Season Continues

​​Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has called on his first-team stars to cut their holidays short and return to first-team training immediately, as his side’s disastrous pre-season continues.

After suffering a 4-1 defeat against rivals ​Liverpool and announcing that Nemanja Matic would miss the start of the season with an abdominal strain, Mourinho went on a ​bizarre rant which saw him criticise forward Anthony Martial for missing pre-season to witness the birth of his child, and claim he would not pay to watch his own side play.

And according to the ​Times, the Portuguese manager has now called upon the likes of Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard and Romelu Lukaku to return to training earlier than previously scheduled, in order to avoid the Red Devils suffering a poor start to the season.

Many of United’s best players have been on holiday since the World Cup, where players such as Lukaku and eventual winner Pogba played late into the tournament and were subsequently in need of a rest.

England internationals Marcus Rashford and Phil Jones reported back to the Red Devils’ Carrington training ground earlier than scheduled this week to help United avoid a poor start to the season, and Mourinho is keen for his other stars to do the same.

“I hope that the boys on deserved holidays take care of themselves a bit and that somebody wants to do what Rashford and Phil Jones decided to do, which is to be back a bit earlier to try to help the team because for the beginning of the season we are going to be in trouble,” Mourinho said.

Man Utd will play​ ​Real Madrid and ​Bayern Munich before wrapping up their US tour, which has seen them lose both Matic and right-back Antonio Valencia to injury.